The FDIC has a big problem on its hand. Some would say it is a too big to fail problem. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation looks over 8,000+ banks and protects the deposits at these banks. Yet this seemingly large number is merely a front for where the assets are congregated. The top 4 banks of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank make up 55 percent of all banking assets. This number is absolutely large. FDIC backed institutions have $13 trillion in total assets. Even yesterday as Wall Street demonstrated the dangers of concentrated power in a few big investment banks, rumors were flying around that some of the bigger banks made sizeable gains in their trading portfolios. This brings up many questions for average Americans who are under the impression that their bank is actually keeping their money safe and sound instead of placing major bets on the stock market.

Yet the major bets will continue because during the news heavy day, what wasn’t reported through the mainstream media was how the too big to fail amendment failed in the Senate.

Friday, May 7, 2010

A strong set of U.S. jobs data Friday failed to shore up confidence in world markets as stocks plunged again amid mounting fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery.

In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index slid 209.98 points, or 4 percent, at 5,051.01, while the pound oscillated wildly.

Germany's DAX slid 226.05 points, or 3.8 percent, to 5,682.21 while the CAC-40 in France was 112.56 points, or 3.2 percent, lower at 3,443.55.

And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 210.09 points, or 2 percent, to 10,310.23 soon after the open while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index tumbled 26.30 points, or 2.3 percent, to 1,101.85.

There had been hopes that Wall Street would open higher after strong U.S. jobs data helped push other concerns, primarily centered on Europe's debt crisis, aside for a while.

Figures from the U.S. Labor Department showed that employers expanded payrolls by 290,000. That's the most in four years and more than the 200,000 anticipated. However, the jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent from 9.7 percent, mainly because 805,000 jobseekers — perhaps feeling better about their prospects — resumed their searches for work.

U.S. troops march along the Red Square during the general rehearsal of the Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russia, Thursday.

There is a lot about Red Square these days that would make Khrushchev squirm. Three-hundred-dollar Italian negligees pool in the windows of the State Department Store, that showcase of proletarian output; a 20-foot Mercedes-Benz symbol glints on the skyline across the Moscow River.

But it is still worth considering how the irascible Soviet premier would react if he were treated — as all of Russia will be on Sunday — to the sight of American infantrymen marching through the gate toward Moscow’s great fortress, the Kremlin. He might do something with his footwear; the question is what.

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.

"They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended," Dominic Maciel, Galli's friend, said.

The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension. They say they're angry they were not allowed to express their American pride. Their parents are just as upset, calling what happened to their children, "total nonsense."

But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

As for an apology, the boys and their families say, "fat chance."

"I'm not going to apologize. I did nothing wrong," Galli said. "I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag, but I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American."

The five boys and their families met with a Morgan Hill Unified School District official Wednesday night. The district released a statement saying it does not agree with how Live Oak High School administrators handled this incident.

The boys will not be suspended and they were told they can go back to school Thursday. They may even wear their red, white, and blue colors again, but this time, the day after Cinco de Mayo, there will be no controversy.

The financial crisis in Greece has taken another dark turn as rioters have taken to the streets in defiance to "austerity" measures that have been imposed upon the people. Three bank members were killed during the riots when a bank in Athens was set on fire during the clash with police.

The riot came in the aftermath of a 24 hour strike that left thousands of flights grounded, shut down ports, schools, and left many hospitals understaffed.

Gerald Celente, a renowned trends forecaster predicts an economic collapse here in America before the spring of 2011. Gerald believes the collapse will not only come to the U.S., but will affect the other nations around the globe as well.

Gerald stated in an interview on RTNews May 5, 2010, that a second revolution is starting in the U.S.

" the second American Revolution has already begun, it began in 2009, on April 15th with the tea parties and the tax protests. They were laughed at by the major media. Then we saw it again in july of 2009, on the 4th of July, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. We saw it at the protests for healthcare reform. We saw it with over a million people, nearly a million people marched on Washington on September 12th of 2009. This is going on World wide. The people are protesting.."

Gerald stated that the current Greek tragedy just happens to be another chapter in the protests against the "too big to fails".

One of the differences between the U.S. and Greece is the fact that we have a big printing machine that can spit out more fiat currency and thereby can offset the crisis for a while. Greece does not have that option. But of course this is only a temporary fix. The result is more money in the form of taxes, and in the case of Greece, austerity measures in the form of a VAT tax to pay for the looting and fraud by wall street, the Fed, and other foreign banks and investment agencies that were in collusion to make gross amounts of profits at the expense of the middle class worker.

Gerald Celente also stated during the interview that the reality is that the bailouts are at the expense of the people to cover for the "too big to Fails' who created the crisis.

"But the overall reality is that the people are saying, what is this bailout all about, and who is responsible for funding it? And it's falling on the backs of the people, just like in America where they taxed the people to bailout the too big to fails, Lets call this Greek bailout for what it is.. it's bailing out the European and the American banks that made big bets on Greek bonds that they're afraid are going to go belly up. And the people don't want to shoulder the burden, and we're going to see these kind of tax protests and revolts go worldwide."

Although the mainstream media, and the current administration has put every effort into reassuring the American people that we are on the sweet road to recovery, Gerald Celente isn't buying it.

Refering to the "recovery",Gerald stated:

"It's a temporay bailout, as we said,..the United States in 2009, and early 2010, has spent, lent, and guaranteed over $11 trillion dollars. This is fake money, it's phantom money, printed out of thin air, backed by nothing, and not worth the digital...paper it's printed on. So we're going to see this collapse as the stimulus collapses. That's what happened in Europe. As they started to unwind the stimulus, as they attempted to raise interest rates, the economies start to fail. We're goin to see it in Spain. We're going to see it in Portugal, we already see it in Latvia, the Ukraine, in Hungary, in Ireland. It's going global, there's no stopping it, and the people are going to revolt."

What it seems to amount to, is Wall street and the Fed being the Big Bad Wolf that knocked the down the brick house, taking all the bricks away from the little pigs (us), and then asking the little pigs (us) to not only provide more bricks, and rebuild the house, but also allow them to safeguard the same house they blew down and ran off with in the first place!

In the case of the United States, we currently now have an "official" rate of unemployment at 9.7%:

On the international scale we also see a dramatic increase in unemployment rates, as all the banking institutions, financial markets, and the corporate media attempt to convince us of the "recovery" coming along so nicely. Here's a chart of international unemployment rates from 2008:

Unemployment includes all persons who are (1) not employed, (2) available for work, and (3) actively seeking work. The unemployment rate represents the percentage of persons in the labor force who are unemployed and is one measure of an economy’s unused labor supply.Seven of the European countries had higher unemployment rates than the United States, with the highest rate in Spain. Source: http://www.bls.gov/fls/chartbook/section2.htm#chart2.13

Here's two charts showing the increase of unemployment globally from September 2008–February 2010 as a result of the economic crisis:

Source: http://www.bls.gov/fls/intl_unemployment_rates_monthly.htm#Rchart1
Revolution is a classic event that has happened throughout history when governments begin to overtax, over spend, and over police a nation of people. " This is a classic example" said Gerald "of what happens throughout history as the too rich get too much, and the rest of the people are taxed to pay for their over indulgences."

As we see more bank failures, bailouts, and foreclosures etc. Celente says we are likely to see the same actions here in the U.S. that we are currently seeing in Greece. This collapse will certainly become global once again.

Join Americans for Prosperity for one of our Ohio Regulation Reality Tour™ stops May 10th and 11th and learn how the White House is trying to impose intrusive energy regulations on you and your family.

Americans for Prosperity® (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. AFP has more than 1,000,000 members, including members in all 50 states, and 30 state chapters and affiliates. More than 55,000 Americans in all 50 states have made a financial investment in AFP or AFP Foundation. For more information, visit http://www.americansforprosperity.org/

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

After voting for three consecutive days to block financial reform legislation from reaching the floor, Senate Republicans finally relented last week and agreed to allow floor deliberations to begin.

GOP leaders decided to move forward with debate after Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said he received assurances from Democrats that they were willing to adjust the bill to alleviate concerns that it perpetuates bailouts, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

However, some political pundits believe the decision was made in response to the mounting political pressure applied by Democrats, who have cast Republicans as uncooperative and obstructive.

"It’s very difficult for me to comprehend senators, Republican senators, coming to the floor and nitpicking this bill," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "All the talk of the Republicans, about wanting to do something about this bill before it gets on the floor, is really anti-Senate, and anti-American."

While Republicans disagree with several aspects of the bill, they seem most perturbed with its aggressive and strict consumer protection language. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who authored the legislation, indicated his willingness to adjust the bill, but said he will not "weaken consumer protections given the enormous abuses we have seen."

Police discover explosives, propane and a timing device in a vehicle resulting in thousands of people being evacuated.

(Conspiring Times) NEW YORK - Saturday evening a car was found by police to contain gunpowder, propane and a crude timer according to the NYPD. A mounted police officer now identified as Wade Rattagan, observed smoke coming from a sport utility vehicle with hazard lights flashing at 6:30 pm, in addition to a statement that an official made from Department of Homeland Security who wasn’t authorized to release the information and spoke on condition of anonymity to reporters.

Police evacuated a number of residential and commercial buildings and cleared the streets of thousands people with militarized police deployed around the area with what is described as heavy automatic weapons according to bystanders. One male tourist said it looked like something you would see in a hollywood movie.

The $3 trillion commercial real estate market is still in a state of economic turmoil. Many people might have missed the big news on Friday given the massive spotlight on Goldman Sachs. On Friday, the FDIC closed down 7 banks at a stunning cost of $7.4 billion to the FDIC. As we have mentioned, the FDIC deposit insurance fund (DIF) is already depleted yet the FDIC has front-loaded premiums to make sure they have a buffer to combat the continuing bank collapses. The Friday bank failures will cost the FDIC the most since the collapse of IndyMac almost two years ago. IndyMac collapsed because of toxic residential loans including option ARMs. Many of the banks collapsing now are deep in the commercial real estate game and that is the next thing to go bust.

Commercial real estate prices have fallen a stunning 42 percent from their peak only a few years ago:

(Click to enlarge Graph)
Source: MIT

Unlike residential real estate that usually has a liquid market, many commercial real estate deals take years to put together. Many deals are developed in booming times (i.e., 2005) and only come online when things are completely bust (i.e., 2008). Many of the regional banks were unable to compete with Wall Street and the big GSE lenders for the residential market so they decided to dive in head first into the commercial real estate game. That proved to be an ill-timed bet.

The FDIC looks after 8,000 institutions with $13 trillion in combined assets:

(Click to enlarge graph)
Source: FDIC

Take a look at the construction and development line but also the commercial and industrial loan line. These are only a few places where those CRE deals show up. Banks are taking major hits on these deals because during the boom times, many businesses were assuming razor thin margins in the best of times and expecting credit to be easily available for a long time. Both those situations are no longer applicable today in the market. Credit is tight for commercial loans and the economy isn’t exactly in good shape outside of Wall Street.

And with CRE defaults, we are seeing some spectacular failures. This last week we heard that none other than the Ritz-Carlton in Tahoe has had a default notice filed against it:

“(WSJ) The developers of the Ritz-Carlton Highlands hotel at Lake Tahoe apparently have leaned a little too far over their skis. Bank of America Corp., the lead lender in the hotel’s $157 million mortgage, has filed a default notice against the property.

Developer and owner East West Partners, based in Avon, Colo., is “talking daily” with its lenders to resolve the situation, East West senior partner Blake Riva said. At issue: $10 million of the loan has matured without being paid, and the lenders want East West to pitch in another $8 million of capital.
Otherwise, East West and Ritz-Carlton, a unit of Marriott International Inc., say the hotel is doing well. Like many mountain-resort businesses, the Ritz is temporarily closed and slated to reopen by mid-May, after the “mud season” passes and vacationers return to the area on the California-Nevada border.”

Short of not paying a few million, all is well. This is the kind of shell game going on in Wall Street that is allowing Bank of America to turn out billions of dollars in quarterly profits even though cash flow is drying up for many of their real estate deals. There is an enormous problem with CRE loans coming due yet many banks like they did with residential loans, are choosing to ignore missed payments and would rather pretend all is fine. In their current state of mind, they would rather pretend CRE values are up to $6 trillion nationwide instead of putting their value closer to what it truly is at $3 trillion. In other words, the entire market is close to being underwater on aggregate.

The giant defaults in CRE bring on two unique problems. For the CRE market, you have virtually no buyers (at least at current prices). Next, you have banks that are using mark to market to keep prices elevated even though many of these current CRE note holders are unable to even keep their loans current. So big banks on Wall Street would rather ignore the issue and keep using taxpayer money to spin out make believe profits. Yet regional banks don’t have the political pull and access to the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve and are finding out that they are largely insolvent. This is an issue of solvency, not liquidity.

Commercial real estate is also under more short-term refinancing windows (i.e., 5 or 7 years) so many loans are coming due in full. Unlike residential real estate with longer 30 year horizons, these loans must be paid in full or refinanced every few years. Now in more normal times, this isn’t such a problem because ideally the bank did its own due diligence before lending out billions and made sure the cash flow of the business could cover the loan. But in the last decade, the same easy financing that occurred in residential real estate occurred with commercial properties. So now, you have a major endgame. These properties do not qualify for financing and borrowers are unable to pay the bill. So the banks that can pretend continue to pretend and the other more regional banks are taken over by the FDIC. Clearly this two-tiered system cannot continue indefinitely.

These problems are not confined only to California:

“(Washington) Among the projects on the seriously troubled list is the nearly 400,000-square-foot Metro Center III office building at University Town Center in Hyattsville, according to bond data. The building’s outstanding $20.5 million loan is 11 months delinquent and the building owners have told lenders that they can no longer pay full debt service due to expiring leases and vacancy issues. The property, which counts Kaiser Permanente as a tenant, is about 60 percent occupied.
The Hyatt Regency in Bethesda is a recent newcomer to the delinquency list at 30 days delinquent on its $140 million loan that matures in January 2012. The hotel’s debt service coverage ratio is 1.18.
“I think the area will suffer more on a property-by-property basis,” Mancuso said. “Refinancing, that is the No. 1 challenge.”

And the list goes on. The CRE shoe has dropped but we have our hands full dealing with crooked investment banks. When it rains it pours and we’ll have to learn to chew and walk at the same time because many issues are coming together at once after the Wall Street gambling spree.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

NFIBSmallBusiness — April 28, 2010 — NFIB unveils how the new healthcare law will impact the nation's small businesses through a variety of new taxes, mandates and regulations over the next ten years. http://nfib.com/healthreform

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